"This is the first time that the Senate leadership has indicated that it will support a vote on marriage equality. This is a stunning and very happy development in this process. I will continue to place marriage equality on any special sessions that I call on Monday and Tuesday because I feel that the bill should be debated immediately. However, I have profound respect for the leadership of the Senate and the process that they took to bring us to this vote."

Paterson was joined by the Senate's deputy majority leader, Jeffrey Klein, who represents portions of the Bronx and Weschester; Manhattan Senator Eric Schneiderman; Thomas Duane, the openly gay Chelsea senator who is the lead sponsor of the marriage equality bill; and Eric Adams, the black Brooklyn senator who delivered a moving floor speech earlier on the importance of LGBT rights and marriage equality.

Liz Benjamin at the Daily News quotes sources who suggest Senate Democratic leaders will "shoot for a vote next Tuesday" after the Senate passes a deficit reduction plan (hopefully) on Monday. If there's no DRP, debate could begin but a vote will likely be delayed.

Whether Senate Democrats allow a vote on same-sex marriage remains to be seen, and it is far from certain that the measure would pass in the Senate even if it does come to the floor for a vote. Same-sex marriage has already been passed twice in the Assembly, but it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

Democrats have a shaky 32-30 edge in the chamber, but several Democrats do not support same-sex marriage. The governor included the measure on Senate agendas this summer, but gay advocates were concerned about holding a vote then because the Senate was in the midst of a bitter leadership feud. Now, however, advocates are pushing for a vote, despite the uncertainty about how the Senate will act. And the governor has little influence over his fellow Democrats in the Senate; members of the caucus said that they do not plan to travel to Albany on Monday, at the governor’s request, to listen to an address he wants to give to a joint session of the Legislature.

Attendance on Tuesday will be mandatory under state law. However, the governor can call the legislature into session but cannot force a vote on specific issues. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader John Sampson would not say whether there would be a vote on same-sex marriage. Malcolm A. Smith, the Queens Democrat and Senate president, said, "If it’s on the proclamation, I would assume we would bring it out for an actual vote."

15 July 2009

After a month-long stalemate, the Senate passed over 100 bills Friday night. They did not vote on several major items, such as marriage equality and mayoral control of city schools.

Just to keep track on who's on what base, the Democrats are back in control. For now. State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. switched sides again and was appointed Senate Majority Leader. Former Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith remains Senate president.

Gay City News reports: "The governor stepped up to quell the chaos in the Senate two days after news surfaced that Senator Thomas K. Duane, the out gay Chelsea Democrat leading the fight for marriage equality, sent a letter to his Democratic colleagues complaining that the issue had fallen off the radar of his conference’s leadership ever since the June 8 Republican coup. Four of Duane's colleagues told Gay City News that it is now up to the governor to insist that the issue be restored to the front burner, while Brooklyn Senator John Sampson, newly installed as the Democratic conference leader, voiced uncertainly as to whether marriage equality would in fact make it to the floor for a vote."

The governor adds the special session will be called "every day until the people's business is discharged and we will be moving on to issues of reform, fiscal discipline and also civil rights." The Daily News adds Paterson "did not specifically say 'gay marriage,' but he has been couching the legalization of same-sex marriage as a civil right since he first unveiled his program bill in April."

Pedro Espada Jr., the new State Senate president says in a radio interview he personally wanted to bring a marriage equality bill to a vote. "I am for same-sex marriage," Espada tells Talk 1300 AM. "There will be no guarantees and no quid pro quos, I think there will be a vote of conscience of the senators.”

On Monday evening, and several dissident Democrats formed a governing coalition with the Senate Republicans after a coup on the Senate floor. Espada, a same-sex marriage proponent, was included along with Carl Kruger, a marriage equality foe and Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat who previously supported marriage equality.

Dean Skelos, the new majority leader, opposes gay marriage but previously instructed his caucus to vote how they pleased on the issue. Newsdayreports Espada "didn't disagree" and says "we should vote up or down on bills, that's part of the reforms we've brought." The previous majority leader, Malcolm Smith, vowed only to bring the bill to a floor when it has the 32 votes it needs to pass.

It is unclear if the bill has enough support to pass . NY1's vote tally has been fairly stagnant, with the last count showing 20 senators in favor, 28 against, and 14 who are undecided or won't say.

"Duane said he's received assurances of support from more than the 32 senators needed to approve the bill. 'I have the votes,' said Duane, who predicted the Senate would vote on the matter before the end of its session this month. Duane declined to say which senators had agreed to support the bill, but said the list included some Republicans."

The governor told the cheering crowd: "My name is David Paterson and I came here today seeking justice. Let New York lead the country in making the dreams and wishes come true for people who want to get married.”

The New York Times reports:
"Paterson did not initially plan to attend. His last-minute appearance, which came just a few hours after thousands of same-sex marriage opponents held a much larger demonstration outside the governor’s Midtown Manhattan office, underscored the high stakes at issue in the Senate vote. 'We’re in a race right now in New York,' the governor told [the] crowd. 'The time for justice, the time for equality, the time for equal rights can never be any more urgent than right now.' "

Among the many speakers: Newly engaged Sex In The City star Cynthia Nixon flashing the diamond engagement ring given to her by fiancée Christine Marinoni, Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell, State Sen. Tom Duane and Empire State Pride Agenda executive director Alan Van Cappelle. The cast of Hair performed two numbers and Broadway hunk Cheyenne Jackson sang. Tony Award winner Audra McDonald rocked the crowd with her performance of "Some Days," the poem by iconic black gay writer James Baldwin and set to music by Steve Marzullo

13 May 2009

The Democratic-led New York State Assembly voted 89-52 for a bill that would make New York the sixth state to allow same-sex marriage. It's the second time in two years the bill passed the lower house. The New York Timesreports:

"In a sign of how opinion in Albany has shifted on the issue, several members of the Assembly who voted against the measure in 2007 voted in favor of it on Tuesday. Supporters of the bill aggressively sought new votes, particularly from Assembly members whose districts lie within Senate districts where a senator’s vote is believed to be in play. 'The margin of victory and the balance of where the people come from who voted for this is broadening,' said Daniel J. O’Donnell, a Democratic assemblyman from the Upper West Side who led the effort in the Assembly to gain support for the bill. 'The state is demanding that we provide equality, and that’s the message here.' "

The final vote count included five Republicans. Janet L. Duprey, a Republican assemblywoman who voted against gay marriage in 2007, spoke in favor of the bill last night. She said a lesbian couple on her block helped persuade her.

The debate shifts to the Senate where Majority Leader Malcolm Smith of Queens pledges action on the bill only when he has sufficient votes for passage. The Democrats hold a razor thin 32-30 majority in the Senate and it's believed the bill is several votes shy of a majority.

16 April 2009

Not everyone is pleased with New York Gov. David Paterson's decision to re-introduce marriage equality legislation. State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. —the arch-conservative anti-gay Pentecostal minister from the South Bronx who once claimed the Gay Games would lead to "an increase in AIDS and more homosexuality in young people"— is predictably outraged.

Diaz Sr. demands an "emergency summit" of the New York Hispanic Clergy
Organization to respond to Paterson. The meeting is this afternoon and Elizabeth Benjamin in the Daily News writes:

In a brief telephone interview, Diaz Sr., a Pentecostal
minister who has long been vocal in his opposition to gay marriage,
questioned Paterson's timing and called it 'ridiculous,' particularly
given the fact that this is the week Archbishop Timothy Dolan is being
installed in his new job. 'I think this is the wrong time to do it,' Diaz Sr. said. '(Paterson) is doing this as a welcoming ceremony for the new Catholic?
It's ridiculous.'

In the press release announcing [todays] meeting at the Christian
Community Neighborhood Church, the Bronx Democrat went even further,
calling the governor's move "disrespectful, and adding: 'If I were
Governor Paterson, I would abstain from going to St. Patrick’s
Cathedral for the welcoming ceremony and to celebrate Mass.' "

Paterson did attend yesterday's installation of the archbishop. The two spoke briefly and we're guessing they did did not discuss the hot-button issue.

Diaz Sr. is one of the so-called "Gang Of Three" in the state Senate that threatened to bolt from the Democrats slim majority unless the gay marriage vote was postponed. Openly gay Sen. Thomas Duane tells the Daily News some Democrats and Republicans are considering switching their votes and believes "we can win this year."

The Pentecostal minister and Bronx legislator has a colorful history fighting anti-gay causes. Diaz Sr. sued to stop the expansion of the Harvey Milk School, which provides a safe space for persecuted LGBT teens. Ruben Diaz Sr: A shining example of why church and state should not mix.

The New York Times: "Comparing the status of gay men and lesbians to that of
African-Americans, Jews, women and other groups who were historically
excluded from full political and social equality, Paterson said he
would lead a movement to authorize same-sex marriage. "We have a crisis
of leadership today. We’re going to fill that vacuum."

"Paterson, the state's first black governor, compared the same-sex
marriage debate today to the abolitionist and civil-rights movements in
the 19th and 20th centuries. 'This is a civil rights issues,' Mr. Paterson said, citing issues like
hospital visitations, health insurance coverage and inheritance that
are connected with marriage. He called for an end to 'a legal system
that has systematically discriminated against all of them.'"

The bill is similar to one that passed the Assembly in 2007 but stalled in the then-Republican controlled Senate. The new Democratic majority leader, Senator Malcolm Smith of Queens,
pledges action on the bill only when he has sufficient votes for passage. The Democrats hold a razor thin 32-30 majority in the Senate and it's believed the bill is several votes shy of passage.

New York City’s new Roman Catholic Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, was installed on Wednesday. On his very first day as the spiritual leader of New York's 2.5 million Catholics, the new archbishop said he will ensure the measure never passes.